So to start out, yes, this is a Solo Event, not a Time Trial.  Speeds are going to be kept within the Solo safety limits, though given the nature of the venue, expect to visit the upper part of those limits.  No special safety equipment will be required and there will be traditional autocross start and finish lines.

The course will use the road course of the Nashville Speedway, as shown in the map below – click to enlarge -

So this is a National Tour?  Yup- that means you can count on a national staff presence, National trophies and National Tour contingency, a welcome party, practice course, Evo Advantage School, just like all other Tours.  This Tour has a few bonuses though, because we are at a race track all the typical tour features will be bolstered by racetrack facilities such as garages, restrooms and one of the coolest vantage points in Solo.

But… Why?  Simple, the number 1 threat to the future of autocross is site procurement and retention.  Every year we hear of more and more sites lost due to development, noise complaints, property ownership issues and so on.  To preserve the sport, it is in our best interest to explore as many options as we can when comes to sites.  This event is an opportunity to explore, and have some fun on a real race track.   The Tennessee Region has proven that this concept has merit by hosting successful events previously.  Now it is time to see how a Tour feels on a grander stage than many of us are familiar with.  The good news is that this “test” represents a step forward, onto a dedicated racing facility and a lot of grins for those of us who have never turn a wheel on a “track.”

For more information and registration, click here.

(Click on image to view larger)

If there was a most frequently used word for the week, the word would be OPR.  It stands for “Other People’s Rubber” and became the official term for all the discarded rubber on course that often was picked up by race tires.  The solutions ranged from putty knives and heat guns to this device, designed to remove laminate flooring.  The local Harbor Freight sold out of them in record time.

Every championship is sweet.  Toby Larsson’s however, may have been the sweetest of all.  Larrson claimed the F-Prepared National Championship over one of Solo’s greats, John Thomas.  Thomas had won the class the last 5 years,with a 11 year championship run previously in E-Prepared, but this championship belonged to the Southern Californian with the orange BMW and ear to ear grin.

Chris Dorsey put together one of the most dominate performances of the week in his  Corolla, dropping 7 seconds on the E-Prepared field.  Dorsey time would have won any of the Prepared Classes except for X-Prepared, where he would have been 3rd.

Competition was not limited to the courses, as there was a “big wheel ProSolo” course set up in the Texas/Spokes compound on Thursday evening.  Despite the aero advantage expected from the “corn hat” Troy Acosta was able to edge out Stephen Ingram to win the round.

The paddock vehicle getting the most attention was the “cooler kart” built by SEB member Dave Hardy.  The kart consisted of a scrapped race kart chassis, a hand-me-down aluminum cooler and race “lock and latch” seat belts to hold the two together.

2011 was one of the hottest Solo Nationals in recent memory.  So hot, it even caught up with “Fast Freddie” White.

Kevin Youngers’ West course featured no less that 32 slalom-able cones.  Some in the form of walls, some as offsets… many of which were hit, often.

Many women have elected to compete in open classes over the years, but until this year only two had been able to win.  2011 added another name to the list, Brianne Corn took the top spot in B-Modified in the Le Grand Dragon.  Even more impressive, she did it as the tire warmer.

Street Touring Roadster (STR) was given a challenge by the SEB, bring 51 drivers to Nationals and you can have Nationals Class status.  Not only did they meet the goal, they were the largest class at Nationals with 68 total drivers in open and ladies.  STR also delivered the tightest competition of the week, with 4 drivers in the first tenth of a second and only 1.8 seconds covering the 17 trophy spots lead by 21 year old Robert Thorne.

Solo Nationals saw another strong influx of rookies in 2011, most of whom, including Aditya Madhavan, were all smiles, helmet on or helmet off.

Click here to see all of Perry Bennett’s photos from the week

When: March 1-3
Where: South Point Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas Nevada

So, Why should YOU come to the SCCA National Convention?  It really depends on who YOU are.  Are YOU a Solo Chair?  What about a member of the team that puts on Solo events in your region?  Are you someone who would like to get involved and positively effect your regions events? What about a Safety Steward?  Course Designer? Grid Chief? Novice Steward? Simply put, are YOU someone that wants to make YOUR region better?  If yes, then YOU are someone who should come to the SCCA National Convention in Las Vegas.

With When, Where and Who covered, the next question is Why?  This years convention will feature an aggressive program for solo aimed at giving your region’s solo leadership the tools needed to be successful.  Areas of focus will include, but not be limited to, Improving Course Design, Utilizing Social Media, Volunteer Recruitment and Retention and Site Procurement.  In addition, there will be an SEB Town Hall meeting, social opportunities and a very likely return to one of Vegas’s finest indoor karting facilities (provided we can smooth a few things over with the management<wink>).

Which brings us to How?  Many Regions and Divisions set aside funds to get their leadership to the Convention.  If YOU are ready, willing and able to join us in Las Vegas now is a great time to get in touch with your Regional Executive and Board of Directors to see if there is a way to get YOU there.  We are working hard to make sure this years convention gives YOU the tools YOU need to make your Regional Solo Program a success.  All YOU have to do, is get there!

Tri-States Championship

Blytheville Arkansas

September 30- October 2

Late fees have been dropped for this event and folks can even enter at the site on Friday afternoon/evening.

Course will be a Grady Wood modified version of Doug Gill’s popular June, 2011 Tour courses

Event will feature the “Champions Challenge” (open and ladies) on Saturday afternoon matching up 2011 National Champions and 2011 Tri-State Tour leaders in single elimination rounds using PAX for scoring.  In addition, there will be a Bonus Challenge by random draw. Prizes include 2012 National Solo entry certificates, annual memberships, and cash prizes.

Sample Course Map

Road Course Tour

Nashville Tennessee

October 28-30

First “Road Tour” (race track) National Tour in the 20-year history of the National Tour program.

Courses designed by Brain Johns and Jason Collett.

Courses will begin at pit exit and end before pit entrance. Grid will be on pit row.

This will be the last event run at the Nashville Speedway road course as the track is closing pending new ownership.

Site features covered garages, a media center for parties, and RV electricity/water.

It’s Halloween weekend; dress up your crew and car for the holiday!! Awards for best team costumes.

2. The Battles.  This year is shaping up to be the most epic Nationals on course in several years.  All eyes will be on classes like Super Stock with Strano taking on Braun and Mark Daddio’s return to F-Stock to take on Brian Peters.  E-Modified will see Bob Tunnell trade in the trusty M3 for a Jeep to try to run down the Super Sprite of Jeff Kiesel.  But it is often the classes no one sees coming that provide the highest drama, there are always underdogs, legends, heroes and villains battling for championships, trophies or just trying to not be D*L.

3. Education.  There is a lot to learn at Nationals.  This year will feature a fresh practice course on a bigger pad, designed by Karen Babb.  There will be lots of opportunities for testing, tuning or just practice on the Lincoln surface.  Need a little help?  Evolution is providing instructed Test and Tune Time, Saturday-Wednesday on the practice course as well as the annual Course Seminar on Monday night.  And don’t forget, this is the biggest collection of Nationally competitive drivers each year.  Bring a notepad, you may want to write a few things down.

4. Money.  Nationals is not free, but 2011 is the best chance at winning some of that money back.  This year’s event has a record 19 contingency programs ranging from tire to auto manufacturers.  If you can run up front, count on stopping at the bank on the way home.

5.  Everyone else is doing it.  There are two types of people at Nationals, your current friends, and your future friends.  Good news, they’ll both be there.

The Solo Events Board asked the Solo Safety Committee to develop a set of Course Worker Guidelines — to make sure that we’re all on the same page when it comes to what we expect of our course workers.  So, here goes:

- Down and out rule – make sure all workers understand it

- You’re there to work – no cameras, cell phone calls, or music at worker stations and minimal idle chatter

- On your feet when cars are on the course

- Photographer (with spotter) should not be placed at worker station

- Stay hydrated — alternate between water and Gatorade if possible

- Never turn your back on the cars

- Spread out — use a satellite worker if necessary – not at the outside of turns

- “Own” a section of the course

- Watch the cars pass and follow them with your eyes- this catches cones that just move a little

- Hustle to reset cones and get back to your worker position

- Watch out for each other — every worker is every other worker’s “spotter”

- Worker with radio should also have red flag – flag unfurled and held against pole

- If you have to red flag a car, be prepared to tell the driver why and how to proceed off-course

- Carry a fire bottle cradled in your arms like it’s a baby — not flailing loosely about where it can smack you in the shins

- To use a fire bottle, pull the pin — aim nozzle at base of flames — squeeze handle — and sweep back and forth (P-A-S-S)

- Methanol fires require water, not traditional fire bottles.  Hard to “see” a methanol fire in the daylight — blue flames.

The weather was a challenge for drivers, as forecast worsened running up to the event.  Saturday started with heavy rain failing and a very wet course. Several drivers were unprepared and ran on drys resulting in more than a few spins.

Heat two saw drying conditions that started as bad as heat one and ended with a drying line. Many classes saw 1st day winners based upon latest runs on the tight but dry line including Bob Bundy in SSM who took a .8 second lead into day two. Drivers who pushed too hard wound up off line, in the wet and often backwards.

Some STU drama occurred when the Mikko family STU car had a dead clutch after arriving on site. Co-drive Geoff Clark spent 12 hours under the car Friday night and replaced the damaged clutch component and a turbo bolt that broke along the way. Further troubles arose during heat 3 competition when the cars sway bar link broke. Spare in hand, Clark again came to the rescue and fixed the car just in time for Tasha’s final run on which she took the lead.

As always, the Packwood Tour featured great social opportunities.  The party at the town’s firehouse included good home cooked chicken and wine, and many awesome raffle prizes including $250 Tire Rack gift certificates and free alignments from Fordahl Motorsports.

Sundays course was the reverse of Saturday’s with some minor tweaks and finished with an exciting off camber right hand turn into a very fast finish.  Competitors awoke to dry conditions on Sunday, but in a cruel twist of fate, a light drizzle started during course walks and by the time heat one started

Heat one was again completely wet and featured many spins as folks sought to make up the margins the previous day’s weather left them with.  The stand out from the crowd was the Hyman Nissan GTR, utilizing both AWD and rain tires to navagate the course as though it were dry.

Heat 2 was again changing conditions but started drier then on Sunday.  A lack of direct sun light left the course moister then by the end of Saturday’s competition but again was mostly dry by the end. Several great battles including H-Stock where Joe Austin almost snatched the win from Local Bill Zerr, but in the end wound up a few hundredths short.

The tour featured some seldom seen autocross cars this year, including a 67 Luv Pickup competing in SSM and and an electric powered Tesla finding its way onto the podium in SS.

The weather for the Pro more than made up for the rain at the Tour.  In fact, Saturday of the Pro was as close to a perfect day as Field Staffer Cindy Jansen could recall.  “Absolutely spectacular weather with highs in the high 60′s and a clear view of Mt. Rainier all day, no equipment problems, no cars broke down on course, no fluid spills, on-time start, leisurely pace, and none of us could remember a single re-run all day.”

The Chris Kmetz designed course, though a little shorter than other ProSolo courses this season, was well received by competitors. Jeff Kiesel had fastest time when he turned a 22, but most times were in the upper 20′s.  Gumout Super Challenge winner Andy Hollis noted, “Courses were straightforward to get 90%, but hard to find 100.  So many classes were tight. Left side substantially more technical than right, especially in two key places. That caught a lot of folks out in the Challenges.”

Again STR was a great battle and based on Saturday scratch times, Annie Bauer looked headed for a win until her limited slip stopped limiting slip.  Annie ran the car anyway on Sunday, though was clearly off her own pace.  Her co-driver, Max Hayter, had to sit nervously on the sidelines while the rest of the class chased down his times relentlessly on Sunday but was able to hold on to the win by only .064.

Both Brian Peters and Scott McHugh had important weekends as they are both now tied for the ProSolo Points leads in their respective classes.  Neither, however have particularly easy paths to the championship as McHugh will have to contend with The Kozlaks and Marc Pfannenschmidt in B-Stock while Peters will square off against Mark Daddio in F-Stock.

Andy McKee also put in a needed performance in Packwood to bring himself to a points tie with fellow RX-7 driver Erik Strelneiks in Super Street Modified.  Tom Kotzian added to his previous ProSolo points as well to claim the Street Modified Front-Wheel-Drive lead in the Mini.

ASP got a shake up in Packwood as Eric and Laurie Hyman seem to be making the most of their Nissan GTR.  Eric took the class win over past champion Ken Motonishi while Laurie posted a dominating performance in Ladies 2.  Provided the GTR show the same type of advantage on concrete that it had on the Packwood asphalt, the Hyman’s could be set for a strong Nationals performance.

BSP saw a new name at the top of the sheet as well, with Alex Jones taking the win in his Solstice despite having some mechanical difficulties late in the weekend.  More impressive, not only that he won, but that he did it by 1.2 seconds over some of the top AWD competition in the class on a course that rewarded both horsepower and traction..

In D Stock, there were 5 cars for 5 trophy positions; the winning MINI, a WRX, an ITR, a VW R32, and a ’11 V6 Mustang. On top of the diversity, there was a lot of movement from Saturday to Sunday with John Ma coming from behind for the win.  This is defiantly shaping up to be a fun class to watch for Nationals. Of special note was Terry Baker taking the top time on Sunday to move himself up to 4th in a 2011 Mustang, a new car to the class.

ESP had a 1st time winner at any National event, Shawn Alexander in his “old” Grey Mare despite two brand new Boss 302′s chasing him down.  The newer cars are still seeing some teething issues though, as the 302 driven by Marcus and Jen Meredith had front swaybar issues.  Marcus spent all day Friday and Saturday under the car trying a dozen different brackets/spacers that would hold the big bar in place.

HS was a good battle at the top and the rumor is that Joe Austin sourced some new springs due to a recent clarification about port installed options on the MINI.  None of the other competitors got their upgrades in time and Joe almost made that advantage work for him as he fell just .145 short of Jacobs.

SSM saw Carter Thompson’s car break a front suspension part, which also took out a good deal of bodywork.  He was able to cobble together a fix in order to take Sunday’s runs and managed the TTOD in the class with his visibly injured car.

Holly Schwedler gets the “against all odds award for the weekend.  She and Jason Huepenbecker dropped off Lee Piccione’s car and trailer at Jason’s parent’s house in Ohio after Oscoda.  Holly and Jason drove back to pick it up on Wednesday, and they were going to take his dad’s RV to Toledo with the Mustang in tow.  They left the house, and the rear brakes on the RV locked up.  So they took the car off the trailer and were going to drive it to the event site on Hoosiers with Holly driving her Mini Cooper.  But Holly ran over a pothole and bent a rim.  Put on a spare, got to Toledo.  Then the Mustang broke a wheel stud.  They got that fixed.  Saturday, Holly lost her phone presumably on the event site.  She couldn’t find it and was using another phone walking around the event site dialing her number to see if she could hear her phone ringing.  Still couldn’t find it.  Then after all this on Sunday, after going into the day leading FSL, she coned her first run and DNF’ed her second and, needless to say, wasn’t leading FSL anymore.  But she came through on her final run to win the class by 0.069.

Probably the best drive of someone who didn’t win this weekend was Jeff Colegrove in F Modified.  He started Sunday in third place and, on a course that was pretty difficult to make up time, took the overall lead from Paul Magee on his second run of the day.  Paul re-took the lead on his last run, and although Jeff didn’t catch him, he did improve to have the fastest time in class for the day on his final run and finished second by just 0.081.

While the Continental Divide Region was the official host Region, they worked closely with the Colorado Region in administering the event. These two Regions have one of the best collaborative relationships in the country when it comes to Solo events.  The two regions will reverse roles for the upcoming National Tour at the end of July at PPIR

Competitors appreciated the site amenities available at this one time location of IRL and NASCAR races; air conditioned restrooms and hospitality room, shade from the grandstands, as well as great on-site concessions.

While significant storms hit CO Springs to the north and Pueblo to the south, PPIR was mostly spared, although lightening on late Saturday afternoon required about 18 drivers to finish up their Heat 2 runs on Sunday morning as the event was suspended to keep corner workers out of harm’s way.  However, these severe storms on Sat caused major damage at the airport in Pueblo, including destroying the vintage plane of A-Stock competitor Wiggy Grecean, who was at the event on a stop over on his way to the famous fly-in at Oshgosh, WI the next week.

The Kevin Youngers designed course was an unusual ProSolo design due to the shape of the lot, wider than long.  The result was a short  start straight.  Competitors found the surface to be grippy but got marbly late on Saturday.  In classic Youngers form, some corners having missing apexes and encouraging entrants to look ahead and find the line, a big wide open slalom led to a 180 with the exit gate offset and the last slalom cone being the last one you saw before having to turn.  The course managed to squeeze in power and finesse elements all in 30 seconds. Everyone seemed to enjoy.

The host regions put together a great pulled pork barbeque for Friday night, Itialian dinner including the often talked about, seldom seen Italian margarita, for Saturday. Lots of folks camping on site from big RV,s Truck Bed campers and a small tent city under the bleachers.

It was a big learning weekend for the Formula Junior field as many competitors dropped 4 to 5 seconds a run and saw reaction times that started in the 2 second range fall in to the .6s and .7s.

The talk of the event was Big Wheel ProSolo.  Pedal difficulties resulted it becoming a team competition with on person driving and another pushing. These two elements being out of sync resulted in many dead cones, crazy drifts and skinned knees. Weather played a part in the results as well, during certain heats the “skies” opened up and rained water balloons down on the competitors.